Flora of New Zealand Series

≡Verrucaria psoromoides Borrer in W.J. Hooker & J. Sowerby, Engl. Bot. Suppl. 1: pl. 2612, fig. 1 (1831).

≡Dermatocarpon psoromoides (Borrer) Dalla Torre & Sarnth., Fl. Tirol 4: 505 (1902).

Description : Flora (1985: 156 – as Dermatocarpon psoromoides).

N: Wellington (York Bay). S: Canterbury (Cass), Otago (Rees Valley). Often common on old matagouri bushes (Discaria toumatou) on open river flats. C. psoromoides is the only corticolous species in the genus. It is widely distributed in temperate regions being known from Europe, Scandinavia, eastern Africa and Japan (Breuss 1990a, 1990b, 1995; Swinscow & Krog 1988; Nimis & Martellos 2003) and North America (Breuss & McCune 1994; Breuss 2002b). Recently discovered in southern Chile (unpublished observations).

Cosmopolitan

Illustrations : Harada (1993a: 126, fig. 7C–D; 128, fig. 9A–F).

Catapyrenium psoromoides is characterised by: the corticolous habit; grey-brown or greenish-brown squamae with pruina in defined patches, mostly on distal parts of lobes. It lacks a lower cortex, the squamae being attached to the substrata by a prominent dark-brown hypothallus of densely interwoven rhizohyphae that develop from the medullary tissue. It is the only bark-inhabiting species of Catapyrenium.